Sounders and Sonics: Bad week for Seattle sports names

What’s in a name? Ask Seattle sports fans. Just don’t expect a calm, level-headed response. It’s been a rough week.

The Seattle SuperSonics were named after the Boeing SST. (P-I file)

First came word that the name “Sounders,” long associated with not only soccer but soccer played near Puget Sound, would not be on the jerseys worn by Seattle’s new major league kickers.

Now this: Sonics chairman Clay Bennett told team sponsors Friday he plans to leave the team’s name behind if and when he transplants Seattle’s first major league sports franchise to Oklahoma City.

Not that Sonics fans would want to see Bennett steal away a decades-old name with local aerospace roots — taking the team is bad enough, thank you — but the chairman’s conciliatory gesture is a reminder of the legacy and history that’s at stake here. Unless locals create a new team — quickly — the Sonics name will name … nothing.

Yes, that’s two historic Seattle sports names that could meet their end this decade.

What’s in a name, indeed.

We’ve included a photo of the Boeing SuperSonic Transport, the inspiration for the Sonics name when the team joined the NBA in 1967. The team long outlived the plane; the U.S. government pulled funding for the SST in 1971, before Boeing could complete the prototype.

Now, 41 years in, the Sonics name, too, may be doomed. What do you think? What’s a sports name worth to you?